Donald Trump

Given the strength of the opposition to a U.S. withdrawal — Israel, Saudi Arabia, the GOP foreign policy establishment in Congress and the think tanks, liberal interventionists in the Beltway press, Trump's own national security team of advisers — the battle to overturn Trump's decision has probably only just begun. Trump's decision to pull out of Syria at least has assured us of a national debate on what it will mean to America to extricate our country from these Mideast wars, the kind of debate we have not had in the 15 years since we were first deceived into invading Iraq.

Securing the border isn’t going to happen in a Pelosi-run Congress. We urge President Trump to continue to keep his promise to veto any spending bill that does not have his minimum $5 billion for the wall, have the battle for the border wall now before Democrats are stronger and have more tools at their disposal.

Life without Donald Trump as president wouldn’t be as clear cut wonderful as liberals would have you think. Saturday Night Live can do all the ridiculous skits in the world and it still doesn’t change the fact we’re living in a complex place and it requires capable people to lead. Trump fits the bill.

Does McConnell think that Republicans will be in a stronger position to fund the wall in February than they are right now? Having control of the House Democrats will also control a host of procedural tools they can use to erect barriers to the President’s plans to build the wall. Democrats will be in a vastly stronger position to thwart the President in February than they are today.

Few conservatives will miss Bill Kristol’s The Weekly Standard now that it’s gone. The defunct publication was a glaring example of how not to conduct a successful enterprise; by alienating those inclined to support them, the magazine guaranteed its own demise. Let’s hope the same fate doesn’t befall Trump.

Sensible Americans must join with President Trump and demand that Congressional Republicans like Speaker Paul Ryan, House Minority Leader-elect Kevin McCarthy, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell do their job by securing our southern border immediately. We must band together to tell Congress to work through Christmas and pull all-nighters if necessary, but their only priority between now and December 31st should be to put people over politics and secure our nation by securing our borders—build the wall now.

Forty-three percent of voters support building the border wall, while 54% oppose it, according to the national survey of 1,147 voters, conducted Dec. 12-17, 2018. The record 43% support represents a five-point jump from its August 15, 2018 level of 38% and is up seven points from its year-ago level of 36% (Dec. 13, 2017). Back on April 20, 2017, only 33% of voters nationwide supported building a border wall. By party affiliation, Republicans overwhelmingly support building the wall, Democrats overwhelmingly oppose it, and Independents are divided.

Democrat political activist Letitia James, elected to be New York’s next Attorney General, is out to destroy Donald Trump and anyone around him. She recently told NBC News, “We will use every area of the law to investigate President Trump and his business transactions and that of his family as well,” and that, “[w]e want to investigate anyone in his orbit who has, in fact, violated the law.” Ms. James may not think it yet, but she and her office would have “skin in the game” if they take on Trump.

There are several good reasons to care what happens in U.S. jails and prisons. First, this is a social stress test of sorts, measuring our commitment to human dignity. Second, because most prisoners — numbering more than 700,000 each year — will come back to communities. Third, there are more lives and futures at stake than that of any one prisoner. There are about 2.7 million children with an incarcerated mother or father. Those seeking a more just society should also care about the quality of Christmas morning for an inmate’s child.

All the evidence we’ve seen so far would easily convict Donald Trump of talking too much, cultivating a taste for the vulgar, liking the ladies too much for his own good (and maybe theirs, too), and indulging a Twitter obsession to the max. On the other hand, he has demonstrated exceptionally good taste in Supreme Court justices. The criticism of the president is reaching a crescendo. Everybody expects something to pop, and soon. We’ve been here before, several times. It’s always possible that Robert Mueller has found the smoking gun. But we shouldn’t count on it.

As far as any outside observer can tell, he’s as ebullient and combative as ever, and has never blinked, no matter how intense the pressure of any given controversy. Far from getting crushed by the weight of the office, Trump doesn’t seem to feel it at all. Never has any president been as outwardly unfazed by the majesty of the presidency and the White House, or made fewer accommodations to their trappings and norms. The idea that he is a representative of the nation apparently makes very little impression on him.

Getting $5 billion to build the wall, and building the wall, is what the year-end budget battle is all about. Shutting down the so-far unfunded pieces of the federal government is only a tactic, not a strategic goal, and having the Pentagon build the wall is one possible solution.

When government oversteps its bounds there’s invariably a popular uprising to combat it. Be it the Boston Tea Party in 1773, the modern-day Tea Party movement or this year’s anti-gas tax protests in Paris, the people don’t take it kindly when political elites dictate and condescend.

Pardon everyone, for everything. It’s all a lie and a scam anyway, and there’s no sense pretending this is all some kind of legit truth-seeking exercise in support of lofty and noble principles. It’s a tawdry frame job by a failed elite desperate to hold on to the power that the people revoked in November 2016. We owe the ruling class no respect; there’s no reason to pretend this Mueller farce is anything but a transparent attempt to claw-back the authority the elite forfeited by being terrible.

The point here is this: We'll never persuade the Trump haters on the left and the right to change their feelings about the president. They just can't stand him. And more than anything, it's aesthetic. They find him vulgar ... not to their taste. Fine. But could you just focus on the facts? Could you just acknowledge - even for a day or so over Christmas - that on the facts, on policy, on the substance, that this is, so far, a pretty successful presidency?

All those ideas are useful, and there are no doubt others. Whatever the direct mechanism, I find the suggestion of a People’s Wall intriguing. If nothing else, it certainly keeps faith with the spirit of the Trump revolution — to shake up Washington and both parties. And if Congress won’t secure the borders, then it is necessary for the public to step in. It would be a modern and critical twist on the Founders’ ideal of self-government. Where do I send my check?

The Democrats’ ever shifting positions on border security and opposition to funding for the border security Wall President Trump promised to build has nothing to do with disagreement on the effectiveness of walls at borders, rather it is a despicable exercise in political hypocrisy in which the only constant is opposition to whatever position President Trump has taken.

If Republican ruling elites are truly terrified over Trump’s threat to shutdown the government, they must accept it’s their own inactions that brought on the confrontation. They can use the coming days to salvage a little dignity and give Americans a Christmas gift -- a big beautiful wall protecting them.

The prosecutorial harassment of Donald Trump, those related to Donald Trump or in Donald Trump’s “circle” is an outrageous perversion of justice. What's more, the opprobrium heaped on the Trump family by the establishment media and popular culture has also claimed entirely innocent victims, such as Josh Trump of Delaware.

With the downing of Obamacare last week Republicans now have a golden opportunity to make something worthwhile out of the last days of this lame duck session. With budget talks stalled over the border wall there’s something new to talk about and accomplish if they’ll only take advantage.